ASHITAKAアシタカ – t r o p i c a l u p d a t e

Recommendation: ☀☁☁

t r o p i c a l u p d a t e by ASHITAKAアシタカ1 is an eight-track mini-album released through DMT Tapes FL, a label run out of north Florida by VitoJames (who has, like, fifty thousand aliases) that’s popped out over four hundred albums from November 2014 through July 2017 and shows no signs of slowing down. This particular album is number 254 on the list. It was released through the imprint DMT[REC], which is billed as the second “season” of the greater DMT Tapes FL brand.

t r o p i c a l u p d a t e is a “weathersoft” album that takes the mallsoft-style samplism of instrumental muzak and applies it to weather forecasts instead of shopping malls. Many of these kinds of albums seek to evoke watching The Weather Channel or similar such networks, often incorporating literal weather forecasts or other meteorological announcements into the aesthetic or music. For example, the tracklisting of t r o p i c a l u p d a t e references a variety of early-summertime forecasts for coastal Floridian cities, and a couple songs outright sample bumpers from The Weather Channel. Other songs utilize various smooth jazz samples with some classic-style stuttering and a healthy amount of lo-fi effects to give the impression of a dated VHS recording.

This is a cute release that aptly and ingratiatingly balances kitsch and nostalgia in a concise EP format.